Powell and Bolt produce speed-fest

Chronicle News Services

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Asafa Powell matched the second-fastest 100 meters ever and Usain Bolt clocked the second-fastest 200 this year as the Jamaican friends and rivals dominated the Athletissima Grand Prix in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

Powell's time of 9.72 seconds equaled the old world record set by Bolt in New York City in May. Only Bolt has run faster, in his Olympic gold-medal-winning run of 9.69 in Beijing last month.

As he did in the Beijing 100, Bolt eased up before the finish line in Tuesday's 200, crossing in 19.63 to leave himself 0.33 outside the world mark.

Powell's time was a personal best by two-hundredths of a second and was one-tenth faster than his season's best, run in Monaco before his relative loss of form on the Olympic stage where he finished fifth.

"I'm very happy," Powell said. "It's a bit late. But I'm very happy after all that I've been through this year."

Bolt praised Powell, whose world record, set at 9.74, he took in May.

"He (Asafa) did well tonight and I congratulate him," said Bolt, who ran 30 minutes after Powell electrified the Lausanne crowd. "I guess he's doing pretty well now."

Powell got a fast start and was quickly clear of a field that included six Olympic 100 finalists.

Running hard to the line, he looked intently at the clock as he left Olympic bronze medalist Walter Dix trailing in second in 9.92. Nesta Carter ran a personal best of 9.98 for third. Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson was seventh.

Bolt blew past American Shawn Crawford, the Olympic silver medalist, on the bend and drew clear before straightening up in his stride for the final 15 meters.

"I'm tired," Bolt explained. "It's been a long season, so I'm just trying to get through the season."

Jamaicans tainted?: Two members of the 2008 Jamaican Olympic track team received shipments of performance-enhancing drugs through an Internet distribution network, according to a report in SI.com.

The documents state that between June 2006 and February 2007, two shipments of somatropin (Human Growth Hormone) and one shipment of triest (estrogen) were sent to hurdler Delloreen Ennis-London at a Texas address. Ennis-London won the silver medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2005 World Championships. In Beijing, she finished fifth in the event, but was .01 of a second from the bronze medal.

The documents also indicate that in November 2006, a shipment of testosterone, testosterone aqueous and oxandrolone (an oral steroid) were sent to Adrian Findlay, an alternate on the Jamaican Olympic team in the 400-meter hurdles.